We supply phone lines to 120,000 small businesses in the UK, so as you can imagine we see a lot of phone bills. In fact we pay a lot of attention to these bills, because we know that one of the best ways we can keep our customers is if we can keep their business saving money.

The key to reading a phone bill is taking notice of the detail. Reading that bill correctly can save you and your business money, in many cases hundreds or even thousands of pounds every year.

So here are a few tips to help you save money on your phone line starting right away:

  • 1) Itemised billing

The place to start is to see whether your bill gives you a breakdown of your calls and charges. If it doesn't then you will struggle to lower your phone bill simply because you will have no idea what calls were made and when. Get your service provider to add itemised billing to your account and though this might cost a small amount every month, you will soon start saving once you have more details on what calls have been made.

  • 2) Phone line rental

This is such a basic charge that often people don't even look at it. But you should look at because this charge will appear on your statement come rain or shine. If you make calls or don't make calls you will still get charged line rental. And the fact is there really are huge differences in the charges different providers make. Particularly if you've been with BT or a similar old school telecoms company for a long time, there might be a big difference between what you're paying now and the cheapest rate on the market.

  • 3) International calls

International calls can be a real killer on any phone item and the differences between providers can be huge. Currently our international calling card customers get a rate of 2p per minute to India and 1p to the USA compared with 75p and 30p on a standard BT tariff. If you regularly call abroad, you can slash your bills by switching.

  • 4) Call minutes

Another way telecoms companies make money is when you use your phone line for more minutes each month than the "free" minutes they've made available on the calling plan you're on. These extra minutes cost far more than if you'd bought them as part of a fixed price package. The best way to get around this is to have an accurate idea of the amount of minutes you actually use and then buy an additional fixed price call bundle that will mean you have enough minutes available.

  • 5) Payment charges

Often on your bill you'll see you've been charged for something relating to the way you've decided to pay. Commonly this will mean you pay extra if you opt to pay by any other method than direct debit. You can often avoid this charge simply by switching payment method.

  • 6) Delete unused network services

If you've had a phone line for a while, at some point in the past someone may have opted for a network service like call waiting or caller display that you no longer need. Get your phone line provider to take this off and you can shave another few pounds off your bill.

  • 7) Call barring

Take a good look at your itemised bill every month. Did you make all those calls? Were they to numbers you recognise or not? What time of day were they made? It is very common for businesses losing money to illegitimate calls made by people with access to the phone. This might be your usual staff but it might be someone a little less obvious, for example a cleaner or even customers! If staff have no need to be making certain types of calls then you can get these stopped with call barring. For example, if your staff have no need to call overseas as part of their work it is easy to get international calls barred. If a phone is in a communal area and is only there to receive calls, you can get all outbound calls stopped. Call barring can once again save your business hundreds of pounds in a year.

  • 8) 0870 or 0845 numbers

In recent years some companies have tried to reduce their 0800 freephone customer service costs by replacing their free numbers with 0870 or 0845 numbers. These are cheaper for them to run, but sadly they are more expensive for you to call than if you were simply calling a normal local or national number (those beginning 01,02,03). You can, however, use the internet to find equivalent geographic numbers that will get you through to the same company at a cheaper rate. saynoto0870.com is a good place to start.

Christian Nellemann is the CEO of Business Phone Line and Broadband provider XLN Telecom.